What's your favorite color?

"Brown," he said.

And so to celebrate his 7th birthday, I made a PJ set and a classic shirt for him in chocolatey browns .

He selected this forest (no, it is NOT camouflage) scene in cotton knit.

And I selected this check. Had to add a little zing to it and so lined the collar band and cuffs in a print.

When making gifts for the grands, I often go back to my stash of Ottobre magazines. I subscribed about 3 years running and now I have more patterns for children than I'll ever be able to try. Some issues were better than others. All three of these came from patterns in this issue:

Here is how the patterns are included in the issues, in case you are unfamiliar:

You do have be in the mood for messing with this kind of pattern. 

One thing I especially like about the Ottobre patterns is that they are sized by height. I keep a running record of the grands' growth on my pantry door so, even though they are not with me constantly, I can make an educated guess as to the right size. These do run a bit wide for my grands but that's typically OK with children's clothes.

The instructions are sparse and not always crystal clear to me. Measurements are in metric. I do wish we in the US had made that switch back when it was a hot topic.

The instructions for the dress shirt were the most detailed, still lacking in important details, IMO. I relied heavily on The Blouse Perfected (TBP) from Cutting Line Designs. This little shirt is a classic style, complete with collar band, double yoke, and tower plackets on the sleeves. TBP contains great instructions for all of these details, as well as nice looking pockets. I redrafted the sleeve plackets using the piece in TBP as a starting place.

I reshaped the hemline so that it is closer to a traditional shirt tail. In the pattern it is straight across which may be more practical for young boy.  I also split the cuff into two pieces so that I could use a print for the facing. I also used that print for one side of the collar band.

Making a classic man's shirt is something I really enjoy from time to time. This was especially satisfying because I visualized DGS wearing these as I sewed.

After completing the shirt, I was totally ready to make the simple knit PJ set: super easy t-shirt and slightly more complex shorts. The shorts include pockets and a waistband like that found in sweat pants. 

All in all, this little gift project has been wonderfully satisfying to me. I am hoping grandson enjoys wearing these.

I may be ready to make another shirt for myself now.